Thursday, 30 April 2009

You remember the fabulous Tamer? He of the beautifulMiu Miu, DiorHomme outfit a couple of weeks ago? Well I bumped into him again yesterday :) He is a fashion editor at Stimuli Magazine , a bi-annual fashion, contempary culture magazine.

I love this scarf (the perfect Spring cover-up) and the way she has teamed it with the palest mint green blouse, relaxed fit jeans and that floral ring. Hmmmm I could get all a bit Gollum with that ring: "We wants it...my Precious!"

Wednesday, 29 April 2009

Um yeah, so I probably got my French all a little bit muddled up but you get what I am saying- Angeline, a French model, looks fabulous. I have been trying to learn some French on my ipod but I wouldn't say it is going terribly well - pretty badly in fact and I am only on the first "intro" lesson. We are heading to Paris later this year (hopefully coinciding with the men's collections in June) so I am trying desperately to learn a tiny bit of French. Normally I just gesture with my camera, waffle on a bit using the three words of French I know and a lot of weirdly accented English (why does that happen? I end up sounding German I think!) and smile a lot. This time I am determined to learn some French before we get there so at least I can ask people if they would mind if I took a photograph for my blog. Mmmmm I suspect it would help if I practiced, oh, say more than once a fortnight ;-)

p.s. For any non-Londoners, the oyster card is that little blue and yellow card insideAngeline's pocket (essential for regular Tube travel!)

Sunday, 26 April 2009

And continuing with the Australian/New Zealand theme, this is Frith, a gorgeous New Zealand model who I photographed last week in London. I got ratherexcited when she told me she was wearing Zambesi, the edgy New Zealand label (which, incidentally, just celebrated its 30th birthday). It still gives me a little thrill to hear Aussie and New Zealand accents on the streets of London (the novelty obviously hasn't worn off yet!) but it is even more thrilling when people tell me they are wearing an Australian or New Zealand label. Makes me a wee bit proud :)

The Sartorialist and Garance Doré are in Australia this week for AFW. I can't wait to see their photographs.... No doubt they will be achingly beautiful. Let's hope the weather in Sydney and Melbourne is suitably well behaved for them :)

Given that Australian Fashion Week S/S 2009/10 is going to kick off in just a few hours, it is rather fitting that I got to photograph 3 amazing, talented and, oh yes, beautiful and stylish Australians last week in London: Top left: Michelle Jank (jewellery/fashion designer and stylist); Top Right: Yasmin Sewell (Chief Creative Consultant of Liberty); and Pippa Holt (Fashion Features Associate, VOGUE UK).

So where's the photo of Pippa? Unfortunately in the near background were a group of guys I failed to notice when I was taking the photos.....and you know how much I adore an uncluttered background. Hopefully I will get the chance to take her photo again soon.

Saturday, 25 April 2009

Some weird and wonderful things happened to me this week - I met some very cool people while I was out and about style hunting with the Nikon. One of them was the stunning Christing, a Californian now living in London, whose Fashion Hedonism blog you can check out here. In a bizarre twist, I only came across Christing's blog the night before I spotted her having a drink with her man and very cute little dog! Weird, huh? :)

Christing was wearing an American Apparel grey tank, Miu Miu shades, Diesel scarf, New Look stripey skirt and rockin' ASOS boots. She looks amazing....and her blog details her fashionable wanderings around London and the Globe. Check it.

Friday, 24 April 2009

This is one of my favourite photosthus far on my photographic journey. I was SO excited to meet the fabulous Barbara Hulanicki, the legendary founder of fashion label, Biba. For those of you who aren't fashion aware, Biba was THE most iconic, hip label in London in the 1960's and 1970's. Barbara has just designed an exclusive capsule collection for Topshop (Barbara Hulanicki for Topshop will be available in-store and on-line from 28 April) which has received pre-launch rave reviews from the fashion press. Fittingly, just as I was asking Barbara if she would mind if I took her photograph, a hip young girl sauntered past wearing one of the t-shirts Barbara designed for Topshop! She apparently picked it up at the preview party at Miller's Academy of Arts and Sciences the other night. I think Barbara was a little bit pleased at seeing one of her pieces on the streets already....thinking back, I should have got a photo of the girl with Barbara as well - damn!

Barbara now lives in Miami and works as an interior and exterior designer (she has worked with Chris Blackwell on many of his hotels in Miami and the Bahamas, as well as on private commissions) in addition to designing a range of bags for Coccinelle, a range of wallpaper for Habitat and Graham&Brown, and a small jewellery collection with the V&A. Phew- I am exhausted just typing all that :)

For me, taking someone's photograph is immensely pleasurable but what makes it even more so is when someone I've photographed before remembers me or stops to have a little chat on the street, even if they are super busy. Despite being 'street photography' and maybe having a minute or so to get a couple of shots, there is still, for me, a very personal element to what I do.

And so it was with the beautiful Emily, who works for Vanity Fair magazine, and who I've now photographed twice. I love the way Emily dresses - timeless classics with an edge. And all topped off with her amazing mane of strawberry blonde hair.

Wednesday, 22 April 2009

There was a rather good article in The Times, Luxx magazine, on the weekend about Lanvin's head menswear designer, Lucas Ossendrijver. I liked what Lucas had to say about men's fashion right now "For men, dressing has a lot to do with codes and uniforms," explains Ossendrijver. "But it's interesting to think about why we wear what we do at certain times or occasions, and then to erase the boundaries a little bit, without being too extreme. I am concerned with evolution more than revolution, with slowly altering some of these codes. But I do think men are changing, and they are more open to new things in fashion.....Certainly, people want to have clothes that work, that are desirable but are wearable," says the designer, "but they still have something new to them, not so much on the outside but on the inside. We don't try to be fashionable. We try to touch people by making clothes that are special and have a soul."The combination of Lucas Ossendrijver and Alber Elbaz (as Lanvin's Artistic Director) is clearly a winning one.

I spotted a couple of bow ties (an Alber Elbaz/Lanvin trademark) on the streets this week:

p.s. Anyone manage to see the Matthew Williamson for H&M collection tonight? I walked past the HUGE line-up for the preview at the Regents Street store at around 6:15pm. I suspect the collection is going to be ridiculously popular if the queue was anything to go by. Let me know if you managed to snag any pieces....or even a ride home in one of the Matthew Williamson decorated cabs which were waiting around the back :)

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

Um, I could talk to you about the fabulous clothes these guys were wearing (Dolce&Gabbana, above; Miu Miu (I think), middle; Gieves&Hawkes, bottom). I could also tell you how lovely they each were when I asked if I could take their photograph for this blog. But no, I am just going to be completely unprofessional and tell y'all that DAMN SKIPPY, these guys were HOT! Like so hot me and my camera almost had a nervous meltdown right there on the pavement ;-)

And do y'all note what they have in common? Yep, that's right - they've all got a little bare chest action going on. As I was saying last week, the sun comes out and you start seeing a teeny bit more skin on show: for the girls it might be a wee bit of sunblessed leg or arm, and for the guys? It's all about the plunging neckline.

In Sydney, the plunging neckline for guys is pretty much de rigueur for long summer days (my friend Dale had a slinky Ksubi t-shirt that plunged almost to his belly button!) but I haven't seen it as much on the streets of London. Let us hope that this is one trend which sticks around for the (hopefully) long, hot summer ahead.

Embarrassingly, I may have asked this guy if he was a model.....Um, helllllooooo, of course he is a model - just look at him! Some days I wish the bitumen would just swallow me up.

I love the way this guy has taken a really simple shirt and completely s*xed it up by unbuttoning those 3 extra buttons (and note his little tank or tee underneath?):

This beautiful trench is from Gieves&Hawkes. He has teamed it with a little American Apparel tee: Savile Row with a little High Street. We like :)

Monday, 20 April 2009

Today was the first day of Alternative Fashion Week at Spitalfields. Despite the fact that I am coughing and sniffling in a rather unbecoming manner and lugging around what feels like half a chemist shop of flu medications (have you tried cough mixture lately? Urrgh. It tastes NOTHING like the sweet lolly water I was spoonfed as a child), I went along and got a few shots.

These are not those shots :) Maybe I will post them later in the week.

No, these shots are of two girls I spied wearing some very pretty Spring outfits, worked back with black tights, while I was wandering around Shoreditch and Liverpool Street.

Sunday, 19 April 2009

You know when you first meet someone and within a minute of talking to them just know that they are a lovely person and you could be friends? Well, Isabelle O'Carroll is one of thosepeople. Instantly likable, she is also a walking, talking encyclopedia of all that is hip and happening in the fashion world as editor of Catwalk Queen , an online fashion and style blog published by Shiny Media. If you are keen to find out the latest insider fashion news and gossip, then pop Catwalk Queen into your Favourites folder. It is one of those blogs where you just go on for a sneaky quick peek and end up whiling away half the morning clicking through the archives. After chatting to Isabelle, I suspect that she has a magazine and blog addiction as hideous as mine - oh um, yeah, but she gets paid for hers!

Oh yes, and Isabelle has a rather fabulous pair of legs which she had encased in these ochre yellow tights and little snub-nosed booties (which kind of remind me of traditional Dutch clogs at the front?). I had to scurry to catch up with Isabelle to ask if she would mind if I took her photo....luckily she is a stylestalker herself and regularly takes photos for Catwalk Queen's "Love what you're wearing" section so she didn't think I was a complete weirdo! We like that :)